


Impostors and Promises

by navaan



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: 10 Years of Steve/Tony, Avengers Vol. 1 (1963), Life Model Decoys, M/M, Pre-Slash, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 04:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10297667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: A LMD goes rogue and replaces Tony. Steve doesn’t know that, he just knows something is wrong, and he wishes Tony and Iron Man were better at asking for help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ten Years of Steve/Tony Ficlet project and representing the late 60s/early 70s among the 616 eras. Takes place around Iron Man # 19 (1969)
> 
> Thank you [Amonae](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Amonae) for the quick beta.

Iron Man left him and Fury to do the final clean-up. “Son of a gun,” Fury mumbled. “One day I’ll figure out what Stark pays him and make him a better offer.”

Cap chuckled while Iron Man was speeding away, a tiny red and gold speck in the sky. “You think this is about money for either of them?”

“Probably not,” Fury admitted grudgingly. 

Something… Something had been off though. It had been the second time since Tony had had his surgery that Iron Man had brushed him off. That wasn’t new. Iron Man often avoided talk about details when it came to his employer and mutual friend. Just… Something had been different about that today.

_“I haven’t seen Tony in a long time,” Steve had said, holding Iron Man back with a hand on the arm. “Is he alright?”_

_“Listen to me, Winghead,” Iron Man had answered, “you worry too much. Believe me when I say, you don’t need to worry about Tony any longer. His life is in good hands - mine.”_

It should have put his mind at ease. The words, the familiar nickname, the fighting style… It all was Iron Man through and through. But the words sounded sinister and not at all like something Iron Man would usually say, although he made jibes quite often. He’d tried to get a look at his friend’s eyes, but the mask prevented him from making eye contact. He knew Iron Man’s vibrant blue eyes, but today he hadn’t caught a glimpse.

Like the man trusted him less.

He’d made himself rare around the Avengers Mansion too. 

Like Stark.

Stark hadn’t been back even once in the last few weeks. Iron Man had said Tony was busy.

Steve wished that both of them would stop making themselves as scarce and be around friends more.

* * *

“An impostor?” Steve asked incredulous when he arrived back at the mansion that same day and heard what had transpired at Stark Industries. “He was attacking Tony in his own company?”

“That’s what they are saying.” Vision’s expressionless face did not seem appropriate to the news. This was an outrage. How could anyone dare to attack a friend of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes like that?

“Never a boring moment in the life of Tony Stark,” Steve said. “Just last week he was dying.”

Wanda pursed her lips. “That sounds like an understatement.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Iron Man hasn’t called in and Tony hasn’t been by in a long time. He’s rarely using his rooms here anymore.”

“I noticed.” It had been on his mind a lot lately. He himself wasn’t using his rooms upstairs that often either. Things had changed so much since he’d made a home here.

He made his way towards the library and sat down in the old armchair. Sometimes he missed the quieter times of his new beginning.

He heard a crash down the hallway and stood, immediately running towards the sound. With Avengers around you never knew what would happen next. But when he arrived at the backdoor, he stopped in surprise. “Holy Hanna, Tony! What happened to you?”

The man looked terrible. His usually perfectly groomed mustache had given way to stubble, his clothes were torn and he was dripping wet from the heavy rain outside. He remembered the warning about the impostor from minutes before and took a step back to read the person who had stumbled in.

“Come on, Cap,” the man said and he looked tired and downtrodden. “Don’t tell me you won’t believe me that I am me either?”

“How would I be able to tell? You and Iron Man are keeping your distance lately.”

Tony’s face fell a little and that was perhaps the only real tell there: There was no surprise, no hiding or subterfuge. The man simply looked like he felt guilty about not having come by outside of a pinch. “I’ll talk to Iron Man when things are back in order,” Tony promised. “He’ll make room and be around more often. And… I’ll try and be less busy and come by when it’s not in a pinch, promise.”

Steve had to grin. It was just too strange to see the usually so well put together man disheveled like this. “You’re not making a good start of it.” He held out a hand to pull Tony along. “Come on! There must be some clothes you can change into, upstairs in your room.”

“Thanks, Cap,” Tony said and it was more like he was shaking his hand, squeezing it, thankful, than like he was accepting help. “Thanks for believing me.”

“The two of you… I can never repay you for giving me a home when I needed one. The least I can do is know you from Adam.” They had reached Tony’s room and the man made ready to close the door between them and slip away again. So he pushed his hand against the door and held it open for a bit longer. “I know you’re you,” he said and met his eyes. “I’m here if either of you should need my help.”

“I… We know,” Tony promised, gripped Steve hand again as if he was taking his leave, and then he slipped into the room with a last slightly wide-eyed and intense look thrown back at him. That left Steve standing alone in the hall.

He pulled himself away and turned in for an early night.

When he looked in on Tony the next morning the man was gone.

“Master Stark is downstairs,” Jarvis informed him to his surprise though and Steve walked down into the kitchen. 

“Cap,” the man said in just the right tone of voice and with exactly the right smile, but something put Steve off right away. “It’s good to see you. Has Iron Man been by? You heard about the impostor?”

“I _did_ ,” he said slowly, realizing that this Tony had no idea he had been here yesterday and was fishing for information about anything that might have happened. “I saw Iron Man yesterday. Efficient as always, our Shellhead.”

Tony laughed. He was obviously not the same man that had come by yesterday, but he _was_ Tony Stark. He even laughed the right way. But then it struck him. The laughter never reached Tony’s eyes. They were like emotionless pools of glass. The man who’d come by yesterday had been different. Steve was convinced that he was talking to the impostor now.

Holy Hanna, had someone really taken over Tony’s life and neither Shellhead nor Tony were asking them for help?

“I know about the old tin can teaming up with you and Nick Fury. Good, good,” Tony said and seemed satisfied. “Always glad when he does a good job.”

Cap had the terrible, sinking feeling that maybe Iron Man had been taken out too and that was why Tony had been sneaking around yesterday.

“Let me know if you notice anything suspicious?”

Steve nodded and watched the man go. The similarities were uncanny, but even more so was how easy it had been to fight alongside an Iron Man who might not have been the real deal.

He had a feeling it was time to assemble the Avengers and make sure everyone knew something was going on.

* * *

The Avengers arrived in time to see Iron Man fight Iron Man - the old gold armor against the familiar red and gold one. Stark’s security people informed them that Iron Man was in fact the impostor and the he had been trying to kill Tony Stark. “He gave himself away, called him Tony… then pretended that he was the impostor, but we heard!”

Steve was afraid they would be too late, when the false Iron Man fell and the golden armor stumbled and it was revealed that it was Tony beneath, who was breathing hard and deathly pale. 

He caught him before he could fall, Thor on his other side. “Tony? Where is Iron Man?”

“Mission…”, the man mumbled, “please…”

The Avengers had gathered around them. “We need to get him help.”

“The rejuvenator might help,” Vision said. “We need to get him back.”

* * *

He tried to reach Iron Man, but there was no answer. Wanda tried again, but with no luck either. Tony lay on his hospital bed and Steve knew there was nothing much he could do about a failing heart, but Hank was working on it and a specialist had been called in.

Before nurses tried to push him from the room, he squeezed Tony’s hand. “I’ll be there when you wake up,” he said. “And I’ll make sure Iron Man is here too. I’m sure he’s alright.” He needed to believe that Tony would wake up again. “Remember, you promised to be around more often and not in a pinch.” He watched the unconscious face, committing it to memory, before leaving. “I’m holding you to that promise, Tony,” he mumbled thickly, under his breath, wondering why he hadn’t done more to help, why he hadn’t made Tony stay back at the mansion.

Now he just wanted to see that lopsided grin and the idea of never seeing it again filled him with dread, made his own heart heavy with a sadness that could not be explained with simple friendship.

* * *

He never really got to ask Iron Man - with Kang taking Tony from the hospital and displacing all of them in time and space, with Tony being discharged later with a new synthetic heart and the Avengers falling from one kind of trouble to the next - where exactly he had been before Tony had been hurt. But there was one notable change.

“You’re around more often, stranger,” Cap joked.

“Trying to make time. Not as hard these days with Tony trying to take things slow. Things might… change a bit soon. He might… He might come and live here again. At least for some longer stretches. Perhaps he’ll have reason to keep a closer eye on me.”

“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” He grinned. It seemed both of his friends would try and be around more.

Perhaps he would talk to Tony. Perhaps he would make a few promises of his own. Life had a way of making things more complicated for him than they needed to be. 

But for now, knowing he would see Tony again, was enough. The real Tony.


End file.
